“Peter wants to do to Social Security and Medicare what he’s done to the rest of the budget,” said Casten. “And that’s bad news for the millions of seniors who are counting on those programs to see them through their retirement years.”

“The clear implication of Peter’s response to the Tribune’s question is that he’s going after Social Security and Medicare to fund the huge hole his tax bill has blown in the federal budget with his tax cuts for corporate special interests and the super-wealthy .”

“If you look at where the debt questions are driving right now, the debt questions are coming from automatic spending. Two-thirds of the federal budget is, we know, driven by automatic spending.”

“That is, Congress does not appropriate those dollars. Congress sets those programs up – in the cases [sic] of Medicare, 50 years ago. So an entitled individual gets the money by the operation of law.”

Casten said it’s no surprise that Roskam has targeted Social Security and Medicare to pay for his tax cuts, since he’s voted repeatedly to privatize those programs.